Probably the most comfortable thing to wear will be Corfam, a new material that looks like leather but is not a substitute for it. It is rather an entirely new concept in shoe materials: it is lightweight, waterproof yet porous, soft yet can't lose its shape, and needs no breaking in. Its coming was first announced in this column back in October, and some Corfam shoes are indeed now in stores, but until completion of a plant now a-building, the supply is sorely limited by what the pilot plant is able to turn out.

Therefore retail stocks of it are spotty, that is, limited choice not only of styles and colors, but, and infinitely more serious, limited ranges of sizes. Since Corfam doesn't "give" the shoes have to be fitted very precisely. You may be lucky and find just what you want, but I'll hold off featuring them until I can be sure you can be fitted.

1969 | Launched in 1963 the Corfam was a synthetic substitute for leather. Du Pont invested a huge amount of money in research and marketing but the material lacked the leather flexibility and soon was dismissed as cheap. The high-end use in footwear was the very last chance but not even Andrea Pfister nor Roger Vivier (who was experimenting the material since 1965) could do nothing about the doomed material. The Corfam patent was sold in 1971 to a Polish firm.

Chains are the newest liked trimming on many of the high-risers. Andrea Pfister, the unlikely named young man who is also Patou's shoe designer, trims his ankle boots with heavy gold chains.

1969 | Andrea Pfister for Patou | Corfam

Patou 50th Anniversary

1969 | Andrea Pfister for Patou

Source: The Herald Statesman | August 1969

1969 | Andrea Pfister for Patou | Corfam

Patou 50th Anniversary

Paris shoe designers are going into many faces of Corfam in a big way. Unlike some of our top Americans who continue to turn their noses up at this man made material, which is difficult to understand since it feels feather-light to walk in and keeps its shape indefinitely.

1969 | Roger Vivier

Corfam Phyton

1969 | Roger Vivier

Corfam

1969 | Roger Vivier for Yves St. Laurent

Source: The Herald Statesman | August 1969

1969 | Roger Vivier for Mme Gres
Corfam

1969 | Roger Vivier for Mme Gres

Source: The Herald Statesman | August 1969

1969 | Roger Vivier for Chombert

Corfam pearlized cobra texture

… the ankle boot that looks like high-button shoes, in a pearlized cobra texture, he did for Mme. Chombert, the fur couturier.